peas need staking?

PERHAPS YOUR PEAS NEED staking? Plastic netting strung between a series of poles is fine for taller varieties. But if you listened (!!!) and planted peas that don’t need staking, as suggested, then maybe all you’ll need is a little pea brush. Basically this is just whatever branched twigs and trimmings you have left from winter cleanup or recent pruning, inserted into the row to “brush up” the shorter peas. I installed some such twigs today that I’d collected in my rounds…the start of this year’s brushing up, and yet another way to recycle in the garden. More twigs to come to make a wider, longer framework (and then come peas).

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being a fan of peas that DO need staking, including the original Sugarsnap and Amish Snap ( from Seed Savers Exchange), I have to put in a good word for stringing a trellis for them out of biodegradable twine. (Parallel rows about 8 inches apart is all it takes. ) At the end of the season we just cut the whole thing off at ground level and put it in the slow compost.

I’m delighted to see this technique featured here. My mother was a gardener her entire life and this was her method of choice. In her later years, one of my favorite spring days was a Saturday visit and the gathering of the “pea brush”. Your blog is lovely.

I brush up this way too, having been advised early on by an English husband. We take the apple, plum and pear fruit tree prunings from early spring and they look so organic. As well, so many of these twigs root you’d be amazed. Don’t know if you can actually get another fruit tree this way but it sure is neat to get a successful “cutting” going even when you’re not trying (I wish my old fashioned rose cuttings were so eager to put out roots!!).

@Paige: In late summer you could grow non-shelling (edible-pod) peas of a short stature, like ‘Dwarf Grey Sugar’ or ‘Sugar Ann,’ for fall harvest, or you could wait till next March to sow, around St. Patrick’s Day. That way you get the yummy sweet flavor without the shelling duty (which really is a drag, and also results in seriously green fingers). Kids like snap peas, too. But I like to have bags of frozen shelled peas in the freezer to put in risotto in the winter for the taste of early summer.

From the Podcast: Doug Tallamy’s ‘Nature’s Best Hope’

“Nature’s Best Hope” is the title of University of Delaware professor Doug Tallamy’s newest book, and the subtitle reads like this: “A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard.” In other words, you and I are nature’s best hope. Our actions count, and they add up to counteract a fragmented landscape and other challenges to the survival of so many critically important native creatures and the greater environment we all share. (Stream our conversation below, read the illustrated transcript or subscribe free.)